Promoting Your Writing

You should never sell your writing, or process to get it published, short. Going through all the trouble to complete a piece, get it edited, and finally published takes a lot of time, effort, and money. All of this effort will go to waste if you do not understand that you need to promote this material. Promoting your book, and writing in general, is extremely important because that is the only set way to really get people interested in what you wrote. Often, the entire purpose of writing is to share it with others so don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and get noticed. Here are some general tips when trying to get yourself out their and promote your work.

Make Sure to Write and Revise Like Crazy

Write as much as you can about whatever you want, no matter how long, the more you get yourself writing the more likely you are to stick with it and come up with something amazing. When this constant writing leads to an amazing collection of work, single book idea, or starting concept, that you really like, it is time to enhance what you started, make it pretty, and get to the heart of it. You should begin to scrape off the dirt and reveal what shines. During your revision process, seek feedback and be brave about critiques. Come out of revisions with a positive attitude and understand that anything that was suggested to change will only help better your book, and make it more easily promoted. Once you write and revise all the way to a completed product it is time to promote!

Start Promotion Early

Once you begin writing a book you should start promoting it. Talk about your new writings and ideas with your network and tell them to spread the word about it. If anyone seems genuinely interested or excited about your new project make a special note of those individuals. Be sure to share progress, completion, and special events, with the people who seem to be continuous supporters. These people will become the main backbone of your books fan base. During the early promotion phase you should also mark on your calendar when you hope to complete specific milestones or writing goals. You can then plan to promote these milestones to build hype for your book release.

Create an Online Platform

The best option here is to go with a personally created website that has a built in personal blog. This will give you the ability to have a solid source for information about you, your writing, and you can also include an online sales shop. Within this website your blog can be a constantly updating source for information. It will also showcase another side of your writing that a book will not. If people like your blog they may promote it themselves by discussing it with other or sharing your it on their social media sites. This will not only give you more exposure, but it will also help people see you do more than write books. Anyone who comes across your blog who enjoys it will also be more inclined to read your other published material and books.

Make Sure Your Work is Remarkable

Never publish anything before it’s ready! Great work has the potential to promote itself. So write, revise, and repeat, until all your initial reviewers say they love it. The better your work the easier it will be promoted and talked about. Word of mouth publicity is one of the best kinds. People listen to a popular opinion and recommendations travel quickly. Anytime you hear something is awesome, you immediately want to try, do, read, etc., it. This is why you need something remarkable for fans to chat about and spread around.

Speak at Conferences and Public Events

Once published, you meet the qualifications to speak at conferences and events that pertain to books, authors, and writers. You also may be able to speak at conferences and events that relate to the subjects you have written about. These speeches or talks can help you sell books and get your name out into the community and recognized as a professional. They also give you the chance to explain why your writing is good for them and others.

Be Generous

If you have just released or published a book, or other form of writing, give some away for free! Everyone loves things that are for free, or even things that are on sale. So if you can create some type of bargain or give away for people at events or book shops they will be likely to remember your name, and once done reading, they will hopefully tell their friends, family, and colleagues how amazing you are. These individuals will then keep an eye on what you are up to so they can take advantage of other sales and giveaways you may have in the future. You can also be generous by promoting other writers work. This will hopefully help you get these individuals to help get your name out there or at least check out your work for themselves.

Be Genuine

It’s hard to keep up an appearance. You want to attract an audience that knows who you truly are. Being uniquely you is much better than putting on a show. You shouldn’t network and connect with individuals through a lie of who you really are. You will want people to support and love the real you, and know the real you, so they can better understand your writing and the motivation behind it.

Conclusion

After you write and revise, promoting yourself is the key to success and sales. The only way to become known and loved is to get your name out there and get people reading your work.

Arts Spark staff members are all either artists themselves or friends of the arts.They have taken the time to research topics we feel are important to artists. If you have an article idea, please contact us. We are always looking for guest bloggers or would be happy to research your topic suggestion for future Arts Spark articles.

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